YMMV / Blakes Seven S 2 E 10 Voice From The Past

• Awesome Ego.
  Vila: Who put you in charge?
  Avon: And why not? Can you think of anyone more suitable?
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Jenna gripes about how mining companies never want to clean up after themselves. This would explain why so many planets resemble a BBC Quarry, as they've been strip-mined by the Federation without concern for environmental damage.
  • Blake's brainwashing starts to break down once the shooting starts. As in "The Way Back", this could be a traumatic response to a massacre of rebels bringing back his past memories of such incidents.
  • The rebel plan isn't as foolish as it seems given that the Terran Federation is run by a Vast Bureaucracy rather than a power-hungry dictator with a Cult of Personality. Faced with exposure of their crimes and a rebellion of the Outer Worlds that could not be repressed without a great deal of trouble, the President and the High Council might agree to resign quietly to enable a smooth transfer of power, a few unpopular scapegoats like Servalan would take the blame for the atrocities of the previous administration, while the Punch-Clock Villains of Central Security would serve their new masters by quietly eliminating any serious attempt at reform. To cite a historical example, think toppling Nikita Khrushchev rather than overthrowing Josef Stalin.
• Narm
  • Shivan. Just... Shivan.
  • The episode opens with these dangerous rebels doing... yoga?
• Nightmare Retardant: Shivan is supposed to be an Empty Shell of the man he once was, a once-famous Rebel Leader who's been so tortured and disfigured by the evil Federation that he's barely able to move or see or speak. Instead we get a shuffling Bandage Mummy in a green cape whose words are totally incomprehensible.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Blake walks across an obvious painting meant to simulate the Alien Sky of the asteroid.
  • There's a great model shot of the shuttle landing on a huge landing pad that is unfortunately ruined by the shuttle wobbling as it trundles onto the elevator.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The episode has the intriguing premise of bringing back the judge who originally sentenced Blake in the first episode, and having him join up with the good guys. Unfortunately the script fails to deliver on this, with nearly every character holding the Idiot Ball with both hands, and the story is further buried by staggeringly incompetent direction, with the end product often regarded as a strong contender for the show's single worst episode.